U.S. officials have received intelligence indicating terrorists might try to slip into the United States using cultural, arts or sports visas, the FBI says.
The bureau issued a bulletin to 18,000 state and local law enforcement agencies nationwide warning about the potential misuse of P-visas, one of several types granted by the State Department for people visiting the United States for those three purposes.
“Recent intelligence indicates that terrorist groups may be interested in exploiting cultural visa programs to infiltrate operatives and support network into the United States,” said the bulletin.
The bulletin, sent Wednesday, does not identify the source of the intelligence and contains no specific, corroborated evidence that any terrorists have entered the country this way.
Joe Parris, an FBI spokesman in Washington, said the bureau did not want the visa issue to be regarded as a public alert.
“This was simply to say, hey law enforcement officer, this is something to tuck in the back of your head, someday this may come up. You might be aware of it,” Parris said.
Spies and defectors have in the past gained entry by tagging along with foreign sports teams or joining the entourages of famous performers. Some people granted these U.S. entry visas have even sold them to others. “Often, there have been problems,” said Bill Strassberger, spokesman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. “Is the person coming here for the stated purpose of the visa, or are they just trying to circumvent the program and stay here?”
The FBI repeatedly has warned that al-Qaida frequently uses fraudulent or forged passports to allow operatives to move around the world, including a series of blank Saudi Arabian passports that were obtained before several imaging features were added to make them harder to alter.
The Russian government last summer reported the theft of 2,500 blank passports that officials feared could fall into the hands of terrorists or criminals. Forged U.S. visas can sell for $25,000 in Pakistan, the FBI says.
The FBI and other agencies are working to merge separate U.S. terrorist watch lists into a single database, known as the Terrorist Screening Center, that is supposed to make the checks easier and faster. The FBI and immigration officials are trying to make the FBI’s huge fingerprint database of criminals and terrorists more accessible to agents at U.S. borders, airports and seaports.
Source: AP